Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

This probably the greatest RTS game I have played as of date, but it does have a few minor flaws.

The way I experienced this game was that I was extremely addicted for the first 3 weeks, but after that, I lost interest, and will probably pick it up later again. This game is best served in doses, it is structured in a somewhat repetitive manner so a person who is not a die-hard RTS fan might lose interest. Interest could also be lost by the extremely complicated systems and features behind this game. But that shouldn't stop them form buying this game, as it will still provide great entertainment, just in doses.

And that is virtually the only problem I have with this game, it is, as I said, the best RTS I have ever played and a must have for any RTS fan. Looking at the campaign map portion of the game, movement is designed ingeniously and is easily executable. The resource management can be a little overwhelming at first, but once you get control of it you'll be set for managing an empire. A few parts of the campaign portion are confusing and have a steep learning curve, but the depth of enjoyment you get from these features once you learn them will far surpass the troubles taken to learn them. There will be the regular needs and strains of making an empire that is reflected beautifully in R:TW.

The battles in this game are magnificient. Whether ambushing in the woods or sieging a castle, you get a rush of excitiment from the huge scaled battles. Troop management is very easy and practical. My only gripe with this is the repetitive nature of the battles, they can get very boring, especially when the cities all look the same. Otherwise the battles are very interesting.

Overall this game is almost a must have for any game collection, but some features of it such as resource management, repetitive battles, and a steep learning curve will lost interest for some groups of gamers. But, I still suggest this for anyone looking to put a little time into a game. You can just look at its applications from being use in History Channel shows, and see it just might be the best historical RTS if not the best RTS made to date.